This invention relates to the art of agricultural machinery, and more particularly to an improved apparatus for carrying a preplanting tillage implement and a seed planting machine.
Recent high costs for fuel and the need to save time have brought about the need to combine final preplanting tillage and possibly chemical application with the seed planting operation.
Some equipment has been developed to combine final preplanting tillage and seed planting, For example, M & W "Till-N-Tote" advertised by M & W Gear, Gibson City, IL (PTO 10/81) and BLAUW, German Pat. No. 2735366.
The M&W "Till-N-Tote" may work well where fields are level with no sod waterways or drainage ditches, however, not all fields are level and most contain drainage ditches or sod waterways. The tillage apparatus of the "Till-N-Tote", being firmly connected to its frame, apparently can only be raised or lowered simultaneously with the planting machine. One skilled in the art will realize that it is advantageous to be able to raise or lower the tillage apparatus and the planting machine both simultaneously or independently of each other. It is always desirable to plant seed up to a sod waterway, then raise the seed planter and pass over to the opposite side of the sod waterway, lower the planter and continue across the field. The "Till-N-Tote" continues to till while the planter is in lowered position and therefore might damage a sod waterway. While crossing a sodless drainage ditch it is sometimes desirable to plant through without raising the planting machine. The tillage apparatus of the "Till-N-Tote" might tend to dump soil into the ditch.
The BLAUW machine utilizes a tillage apparatus which is mounted to the tractor. The single beam forward frame member of the planter carrying device is not designed for supporting a tillage implement.